Boise State football team’s WRs step up in blowout of Southern Miss

Boise State wide receivers Geraldo Boldewijn and Shane Williams-Rhodes made two of the best offensive plays of the season for the Broncos on Saturday night against Southern Miss.

The receivers have been criticized a bit this season for not winning “50/50 balls” — the deep passes where the receiver and defender compete for the ball — and they had not made many spectacular catches.

That changed in the 60-7 win.

Late in the first half, Boldewijn made a leaping, 52-yard catch down the middle to set up a touchdown.

“That was awesome. I was so excited,” senior quarterback Joe Southwick said. “I was smiling ear to ear. I was really excited for him.”

Boldewijn, at 6-foot-4 senior who is one of the most physically gifted players on the team, only had two previous catches this season for 30 yards or more — a 57-yarder against Fresno State and a 42-yarder earlier against Southern Miss. On both of those plays, the Broncos fooled the defense and he was wide open.

“It was big,” Boldewijn said of his catch. “It gives the coaches a little more confidence in us receivers.”

The touchdown Boldewijn set up gave the Broncos a 30-7 lead at halftime. That momentum carried into the third quarter.

“Changed the game,” coach Chris Petersen said. “We get a big, tall receiver like that and the ball’s up for grabs, he should be able to get it. It was really nice to see him make strides tonight.”

Williams-Rhodes’ big catch was on the offensive play immediately before Boldewijn’s. Southwick scrambled to his right and threw to the front corner of the end zone. Williams-Rhodes, who is 5-6, appeared to get both hands under the ball as he dove and made the catch. It was reviewed by the replay booth and the touchdown was upheld.

“That was really a spectacular catch,” Petersen said. “I didn’t know if he caught it. He’s probably the only guy on the team who could have caught that thing. It was low and away. And that’s the guy you want when it’s low and away.”

Other quotes:

— Southwick said junior wide receiver Matt Miller fell down on his route on his touchdown catch. Southwick scrambled to his right and hit Miller after he stood up. “Matt was going to be wide open,” Southwick said. “I’m just glad I didn’t throw it (the first time) because I was really ready to pull that trigger.”

— Southwick on tailback Jay Ajayi, who rushed for 83 yards despite beginning the game in the No. 2 role because of his recent fumbles: “It was same old Jay during the game, running as hard as anybody, really bringing it to the defender. He ran hard. I know his emphasis was ball security.”

— Petersen on bouncing back from the 41-40 loss to Fresno State: “We’re proud of the guys. They worked hard. It’s not easy to come off a hard loss like that. They went right back to work. It took a minute to get going on offense, but once we did the guys got into a good rhythm.”

— Petersen remembered using a version of the Fumblerooski play that Williams-Rhodes scored on twice during the Ryan Dinwiddie years, from 2001 to 2003. It worked once, though not for a TD, and the execution was botched the second time, he said.

— Petersen said defensive end Demarcus Lawrence’s two blocked field goals were the result of several weeks of impressive work by the field-goal-block team in practice: “Our field-goal-block team did a nice job. Demarcus is very good at that. There’s a couple other guys in there pushing hard. We really haven’t gotten anything done up to this point and they’ve been working hard on that so it’s really nice to see that come alive tonight.”

— Sophomore defensive tackle Armand Nance on Lawrence: “He really fires up the team, the whole team … when he makes plays like that. I know he pushes me to make plays like he does.”

— Sophomore safety Darian Thompson on the inexperienced defenders: “They’re starting to get it and starting to get the mentality that they do have it, so that really helps.”

A few notes:

— The Broncos are up to 18th in the nation in scoring, at 42.2 points per game. They have scored 40-plus in four straight games for the first time in three years.

— This is the first time that Boise State has scored 60 points twice in a season since 2004.

— Saturday ended a streak of 10 straight games in which the Broncos allowed at least 14 points, the longest in the Petersen era. Boise State made some tweaks to its defense, often using five defensive backs and two linebackers. “I think our coaches made some good adjustments over the week and we need to because we’re going to see this style,” Petersen said.

Shane Swanson, 12, of Minnesota spent his Make-A-Wish wish with the Boise State football team this weekend. He led the Broncos onto the field Saturday night — escorted by offensive lineman Charles Leno Jr. and holding hands with safety Taylor Loffler. (Kyle Green / Idaho Statesman)

Fresno State moved up two spots to No. 21 and Washington moved up two spots to No. 18 on Sunday in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

Fresno State also advanced two spots to No. 23 in AP and Washington jumped one spot to No. 15 in AP.

Fresno State likely benefited from no one seeing its meltdown Saturday night at Hawaii. The Bulldogs led 42-3 in the third quarter. Hawaii rallied with five straight touchdowns and had two throws at the end zone at the end of the game, losing 42-37.

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AP TOP 25

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